Its been 21 years since Trent Reznor unleashed the awesomeness that is Nine Inch Nails.

The first time
I heard a nin song it was a Halloween night in the early Nineties. The TV had been flipped to Mtv after the conclusion of a brilliant Simpson’s Treehouse of Terror. We were counting our candy and someone said, “Hey, look at that.” The video for ‘Head Like a Hole’ was playing, and I just kind of stared at it, not realizing what I was watching. My next and most relevant introduction was a few years later, senior year of High School, with the seminal release of The Downward Spiral.

But, after all the years, and all the Halos, my favorite nin album has always been Pretty Hate Machine. Reznor has promised for years that, given the chance, he would gladly sit down at the boards and remaster this album. It looked glum for a long time as TVT held tightly to the master tapes. Then Ryodisk managed to get a hold of them for a remaster in ’05… after which they apparently were locked in a vault until the bank went under and finally, early this year the lot was purchased from the failing bank and allowed to breath. A deal was struck and Reznor allowed access. Magic is what happened. Continue Reading